Photo: RNZ
Sniffing out the last stoats on Waiheke Island is all in a day's work for springer spaniel Parker and dog handler Tilde Sorensen.
Five boxes lay on the ground in front of Parker. Four were decoys and one held what he was supposed to find. All he had to do was sniff out the correct box and lie down with his nose pointing at it.
The springer spaniel's handler, Tilde Sorensen, was nervous. This test was part of a gruelling six-hour long exam she and Parker needed to pass in order to become certified by the Department of Conservation as a detection dog.
Parker's detection speciality was stoat poo, but each box held a different type of animal dropping that Parker might come across while on the job. "I had rabbit scat, cat, duck, chicken, I had some rat as well," says Sorenesen.
Sorensen had never owned a dog before. She works for Te Korowai o Waiheke / Predator Free Waiheke, a project aiming to eradicate rats and stoats from the already possum-free island.
Parker belongs to Auckland Council, but now lives fulltime on Waiheke Island with Sorensen. When the call was put out asking for someone to volunteer to be a dog handler, Sorensen put her hand up, despite her inexperience. Now Parker's part of her family.
The first certification test six months earlier was simpler.
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